How to curb youths’ restiveness in Niger Delta, by council chair

As leaders in the Niger Delta keep lamenting the harm youths’ restiveness has done to the region, a council chief has identified education as one of the key factors that will bring about the much-needed peace.

The chairman of Okirika Local Government Area of Rivers State, Mr. Tamuno Williams made the observation in Port Harcourt during the lecture at the inauguration of the Rivers State chapter of Society for Peace Studies and Practice (SPSP).

He said government should design educational system that would enable the youth to acquire skills that would make them useful both to themselves and the society.

Williams, who spoke on the theme, “Youth Restiveness in the Niger Delta: Challenges and the Way Forward,” also said that if government would make any effort to curb restiveness in the region, then they should design skilful educational system that would enable the youth to be useful to the society after they graduate.

The council chief regretted that corruption and unemployment are some of the causes of youth restiveness in the society, even as he stressed that the Federal Government should ensure that the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria addresses the needs of the people.

He further stated that to fight against youth restiveness which has become somewhat a menace in the society; it demands genuine commitment from all Nigerians.

In his address, the National President of SPSP, Dr Willie Eselebor said that Nigeria is seriously experiencing high rate of insecurity, which he attributed to the inability of various levels of government to adopt conventional approach to solving restiveness as a destabilising phenomenon.

Eselebor also said that re-orientation of the people on the issue of violence would go a long way in proffering solution to the problem.

“Violence is violence in any form or shape. Unless both victims and perpetrators are transformed, there will be no end to violence,” he stated.

In his address, Professor Olawale Albert urged members of the newly inaugurated chapter of the organisation to promote the culture of peace through practice of peace, education and advocacy.

He also advised them to collaborate and build relationship with identifiable key stakeholders in peace-building.